Resident Physician Sung Duc Long, Deputy Head of the Interdisciplinary Department at Hung Vuong General Hospital, recently shared a story that has left many colleagues and readers reflecting deeply on patient trust in medical staff.

According to Long, he directly performs hundreds of maxillofacial surgeries each year, including many complex cases lasting several hours that require intense concentration. However, there is one case he considers the greatest "failure" of his career, not due to technical reasons, but for an entirely different cause.

The patient was admitted in a very serious condition: significant blood loss, weak respiration, and a high risk of death without emergency surgery. The medical team had prepared for the operation. However, outside the emergency room, the patient’s relatives turned to a nurse and asked who would be performing the surgery: “What kind of doctor will operate on our family member?” The nurse replied, “A resident doctor.”

Hearing this, the family hesitated and asked again: “Not a professor?” When told “no,” they looked at each other for a few seconds and quietly said, “Then we would like to transfer to another hospital.”

The door to the ward closed. Dr. Long stood still in his blood-stained white coat after finishing a previous procedure. His hands had saved hundreds of lives, but this time he could not save the patient, not because of a lack of competence, but because of the absence of a “title.”

“At that moment, I realized that some lives are not lost to severe illness, but to trust placed in titles rather than in expertise and experience,” Long said.

The story is not only Dr. Long’s personal regret; it also raises broader questions about society’s perception of the medical profession. In life-and-death moments, what matters more: academic titles and ranks, or the competence and readiness of the doctor standing by to save a life?

Speaking at a recent seminar, Associate Professor Nguyen Lan Hieu, Director of Hanoi Medical University Hospital, said he prefers simply to be called “doctor.”

He shared an anecdote from his early days working at Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi: “I overheard patients from rural areas talking among themselves. They said, ‘There are only PhDs and professors here, no doctors, so, let’s go home.’”

“In fact, a doctorate or master’s degree is an academic qualification for researchers, and the title of professor is for teaching. When it comes to treating patients, I am simply a doctor,” he said.

Phuong Thuy